Thursday, January 28, 2010

About last night - Road woes

Anyone have a brick wall handy? I need one after Connecticut blew up in front of our faces in Providence vs. the Friars. The 81-66 result was a surprise since the Huskies were able to hold the lead for a chunk of the game, but it wasn't a surprise in terms of the Big East standings where the Huskies were behind the Friars. The question for the Huskies is will they fall out in the next projections? It's about 53-47 in favor of dropping out. And can the Friars make a move into the field? No, at least not yet. They'll make the under consideration board.

A clash of the titans took place in the Mountain West last night too, it ended up with New Mexico edging out Brigham Young 76-72 to hand the Cougars their first loss inside the conference and make it a 50-50 shot the Lobos move up to a protected seed. There was also a bit of controversy that could have altered the result. With 26 seconds left, Jimmer Fredette shot a questionable 3-pointer that made the score 73-70. The toes of Fredette's right foot appeared to be straddling the 3-point line, with no TV camera having a clear shot. The Lobos, however, never lost the lead in the last 26 seconds, thus making it moot.

William & Mary's at-large chances are done after James Madison edged them out in Harrisonburg, 65-63. Also faltering in Colonial play was Northeaster who was upset at home by Drexel, 61-48. This leaves the "old reliables" George Mason and Old Dominion at the head of the pack.

Elsewhere, Florida State will have a tough time staying in the bracket after falling for the 11th time in succession to Duke in Cameron Indoor, 70-56 Charlotte proved worthy of inclusion in the field, topping Temple 74-64; Oklahoma State pushed Texas A&M over the edge, 76-69; Wichita State downed Illinois State 74-66; Vanderbilt continued it's unbeaten SEC run in 85-76 road win over Tennessee; and lastly Maine drew a stiff challenge from Boston University before prevailing 56-54.